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Friday, 22 July 2016

Aggrieved senators reject Saraki’s peace moves

In
spite of fresh overtures with juicy committees, Senators opposed to the
emergence of Dr. Bukola Saraki as the President of the Senate were
yesterday insisted on seeing through the ongoing trial of Saraki and the
Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu.

They said the case was already beyond them since the Federal Government is in charge of prosecution.

They also said it was too late to
withdraw the petition that made the police to investigate the alleged
forgery in the first instance.

Some members of the aggrieved Unity Forum asked Saraki to go beyond the shuffling of committees.

They said there could be an out-of-court
settlement if Saraki respects the wish of the All Progressives Congress
to concede some principal offices to members of the Unity Forum.

The two leaders are standing trial in
the High Court of Justice of the Federal Capital Territory for alleged
forgery of the Senate Standing Rules 2015 (as amended).

Others in the dock with them are the
immediate past Clerk to the National Assembly, Salisu Abubakar
Maikasuwa, and the Deputy Clerk to the National Assembly, Benedict
Efeture.

The trial has been adjourned to September 28 by Justice Halilu Yusuf of the FCT High Court.

In a deft political move aimed at
reconciliation with the senators against him, Saraki on Thursday
reconstituted some committees to accommodate his opponents.

The breakdown saw two prominent members
of the Unity Forum, Sen. Kabiru Marafa and Suleiman Hunkuyi now given
what was termed “strategic and juicy” committees.

The new deputy chairmen of some committees are Ahmed Ogembe (Marine Transport); and Phillip Aduda (Petroleum downstream).

A highly-placed source in the Unity
Forum said: “Since the reshuffling of some committees on Thursday, I
have lost sleep because Senators loyal to Saraki and Ekweremadu have
been mounting pressure on us to forget about the case in court.

“One of the loyalists said since the
issue of committees was part of the conditions for peace; we should
embrace Saraki and Ekweremadu. The pro-Saraki elements claimed that they
are ready for more concessions.

“It appears the shuffling of the committees was a masterstroke to divide the Unity Forum. But they cannot break our ranks.”

Another ranking Senator said a principal
officer met with him on Thursday and simply asked: ‘Now that we have
reconstituted the committees, will you people (Unity Forum) help us
resolve this case now?

“The emissary from the South-East was eager to extract a commitment from me and some members of the Unity Forum with me.

“I reminded the principal officer that the ball is in the court of the Federal Government which is prosecuting the case.

It was however gathered that some Unity
Forum members who met after the the committees were shuffled have chosen
to press ahead with the forgery case.

At the session, the members said Saraki was yet to “respect the wish of APC on the sharing of principal offices.

The source added: “When we met on
Thursday night, we weighed all options and concluded that Saraki has not
demonstrated substantial readiness to reconcile with the Unity Forum.

“He redeployed a key and effective
member of this forum, Sen. Babajide Omoworare from Rules and Business to
a redundant committee. Some Senators were really shocked because
Omoworare is a team player.

“The appointment of committee chairmen is not far-reaching because any Senator’s choice is at the discretion of Saraki.

“We can resolve the crisis but after this step, Saraki may reshuffle all the committees again.

“We are at his mercy on committees. Saraki has the sole right to constitute committees without deferring to Senators.

“If we go back on this case because of
appointment into committees, we would have proved to Nigerians that we
were pursuing the case for selfish reasons.

“We are however committed to peace in
the Senate. We concluded that if Saraki is serious, let him respect the
wish of APC leadership and heed the advice of President Muhammadu Buhari
in choosing principal officers